Saturday, 29 April 2017

What
a wonderful day everyone had during the Pet Nose Day at Mount Stewart this month and
although not everyone could get a place, everyone was a winner. Below is Alison (in red) who kept us all
right and made sure all the various dog rounds ran smoothly, the Judge, George Angus looked
at every single dog fairly, Lady Rose helped the judge in the final round of
judging and these 2 dogs who are with their owners came out tops.

Friday, 28 April 2017

Time to join Friday’s Hunt and Weekend Reflections and the
letter today is Q, Favourite and Evening.
When I was down at my old caravan, one day I went and visited the QUAINT QUOILE
Countryside Centre and apart from the lovely garden you see below and the many
walks, there is also this QUOILE Castle.

When this castle was built just after 1600, the river
flowed right up to the castle as the river was a lot wider in those days. It is of rectangular shape and has 3 floors with the windows high up to withstand any flooding. It is thought that Captain West and his
family and ancestors lived there for over a century but in the 20th Contrary
the South wall fell and was not able to be repaired.

The QUOILE River has a hide and so I made my way there
and meet another birder who had brought another man with him (below) who was looking after his dog
for him. It turned out that this man was
96 years old and walks miles everyday.

It was QUITE
a dull day as you can see but there were Swans, Godwits, Coot, Moorhen, Little
Egret, Grey Heron, Tufted, Mallard and Goldeneye ducks as well as Cormorant and the usual gulls.

As
the EVENING draws in, the Mountains
of Mourne in Northern Ireland are just visible in the distance in the image below and you can see the REFLECTION of the sky colours on the water.

Thursday, 27 April 2017

Last
week a group of us travelled by train to Dublin to see the Caravaggio Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland and afterwards we had time to walk round St
Stephens’ Green Park where we saw the lake with this fence.

Wednesday, 26 April 2017

Last
week a group of us travelled by train to Dubbin to see the Caravaggio Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland and afterwards lunch,we had time to walk round St
Stephens’ Green Park and look at the beautiful displays of flowers before
coming home. The last image is of Linda and I with Oscar Wilde. Enjoy.

Monday, 24 April 2017

The day of the Grand opening of the Restored Stone Floor was upon on 13 April and we were greeted by hearing Amy McAllister playing delightful music on her Irish harp. This is a long post but a very special day in the life of Mount Stewart House, near Newtownards, N.Ireland and I am linking to Through My Lens.

Mayor of Ards and North Down is Alderman Deborah
Girvan, Peter Lauritzen (husband of Lady Rose and granddaughter of Edith) and
Dr Bob Brown OBE,

Regional Chairman of National Trust in Northern Ireland
(right) who are all standing beside the new display cabinet containing the
Coronation roles and crown which Lady Edith, the 7th Marchioness of Londonderry
wore at King George V's Coronation.

The
kitchen/restaurant staff at Mount Stewart excelled themselves at the reception,
before the official opening ceremony, by supplying those invited guests with Champagne
and a wonderful variety of canapes.

Lady Rose and her husband Peter Lauritzen as chief
guests.

A
few images of the invited guests enjoying the delicious refreshments.

Jon Kerr, General Manager of East Down National Trust, Northern Ireland introduced all the guest speakers and I will only mention one
here and that is (left) Simon Murray, Senior Director of Strategy, Curatorship
and External Affairs, National Trust, UK, who had made a bet with Jon and
his team, that they would not finish this project either on time or within
budget.He lost on both counts as it came in under
budget and on time so Jon was delighted to receive 2 bottles of champagne on behalf of his team from Simon.

After
Lady Rose made a very eloquent speech, she cut the official blue ribbon and stepped
into the restored floor of the Entrance Hall accompanied by Jon Kerr.

I hurried in to try and get photographs before all the guests entered and directly below is the East side where you see the statue of Venus andbelow that is the West side of the Entrance Hall where Eurydice is standing.

Below, in the centre of the Entrance Hall, the stone is set in
a radiating pattern while on the East and West side, it is laid in a design of octagons and
squares.

I quickly decided a better plan was to photograph it
from the Gallery above where they were holding an exhibiton of art from artists that were asked to show what Mount Stewart meant to them. Although I am not showing you this now, they
were really wonderful and creative works of art.

.

I leave you with part of the Gallery which is directly above the main Entrance Halll and where I was
photographing from, and you can see some of the art work displayed in the distance.

I hope you enjoyed this post and many thanks for visiting as well as leaving any comments on this post.

Like

E Mail Me At :-

Translate

About Me

I have retired from a medical background, from teaching a 3 year City and Guilds; and also running a Bed and Breakfast. I have taken up bird watching later in life however I became very enthusiastic from the beginning and was greatly encouraged by other bird watchers. For the past 8 years I have led a bird group in my town and have become a guest speaker on cruise shipstalking about Birds around the world. I have travelled quite a bit,in particular to Australia where one of my daughters lives. I have now as many birding friends there as at home in Northern Ireland. I love Nature and being able to share that with others of like mind. I also like photography and do my best to photograph birds although I sometimes get a bit frustrated as my zoom is just not powerful enough.

My daughter and family that were in Australia have now moved to Malawi to work and I have visited them several times as well as visiting Zambia. I.live in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and it is a beautiful place to live however I love travelling and wil continnue to travel aslong as I am able. I would love to go to visit bloggers that I follow and they are always very welcome here in N. Ireland.